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Recess Appointments: Frequently Asked Questions Recess Appointments: Frequently Asked Questions Updated March 11, 2015 Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov RS21308 Recess Appointments: Frequently Asked Questions Summary Under the Constitution (Article II, §2, clause 2), the President and the Senate share the power to make appointments to high-level policy-making positions in federal departments, agencies, boards, and commissions. Generally, the President nominates individuals to these positions, and the Senate must confirm them before he can appoint them to office. The Constitution also provides an exception to this process. When the Senate is in recess, the President may make a temporary appointment, called a recess appointment, to any such position without Senate approval (Article II, §2, clause 3). This report supplies brief answers to some frequently asked questions regarding recess appointments. Additional information on recess appointments may be found in other CRS reports: CRS Report R42329, Recess Appointments Made by President Barack Obama, by Henry B. Hogue and Maureen O. Bearden; CRS Report RL33310, Recess Appointments Made by President George W. Bush, by Henry B. Hogue and Maureen O. Bearden; and CRS Report RL33009, Recess Appointments: A Legal Overview, by Vivian S. Chu. This report will be updated as events warrant. Congressional Research Service Recess Appointments: Frequently Asked Questions Contents What Is the Purpose of a Recess Appointment? ........................................................................ 1 How Often Have Recent Presidents Made Recess Appointments? ........................................... 1 What Is a “Session”? ................................................................................................................. 1 What Is a “Recess”? .................................................................................................................. 2 How Long Must the Senate Be in Recess Before a President May Make a Recess Appointment? ......................................................................................................................... 3 What Constitutes a “Vacancy”? ................................................................................................ 4 How Long Does a Recess Appointment Last? .......................................................................... 5 Must a Recess Appointee Be Nominated to the Position as Well? ............................................ 5 What Is the Difference Between the Authority and Pay of a Confirmed Appointee and Those of a Recess Appointee? ............................................................................................... 5 Are There any Statutory Constraints on the President’s Recess Appointment Power? ............. 6 What Happens If the Nomination of a Recess Appointee Is Rejected? .................................... 7 Can the President Make Successive Recess Appointments to the Same Position? ................... 7 Can a Recess Appointment Be Used to Fill a Vacancy on the Federal Bench? ........................ 8 Can Congress Prevent Recess Appointments? .......................................................................... 8 Contacts Author Information .......................................................................................................................... 9 Congressional Research Service Recess Appointments: Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Purpose of a Recess Appointment? The Constitution states that “[t]he President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session” (Article II, §2, clause 3). The records of debate at the Constitutional Convention do not provide much evidence of the framers’ intentions in the Recess Appointment Clause. A discussion of the clause by Alexander Hamilton, in The Federalist Papers, suggests that its purpose was to provide an alternative method of appointment that would allow the filling of vacancies “without delay” during periods of Senate absence.1 Opinions by later Attorneys General also supported this general notion, suggesting that the purpose of the clause was to allow the President to maintain the continuity of administrative government through the temporary filling of offices during periods when the Senate was not in session, at which time his nominees could not be considered or confirmed.2 This interpretation is supported by the fact that both houses of Congress had relatively short sessions and long recesses during the country’s early years. In fact, until the beginning of the 20th century, the Senate was, on average, in session less than half the year.3 Throughout the history of the republic, Presidents have also sometimes used the recess appointment power for political reasons. For example, recess appointments have sometimes enabled the President to temporarily install an appointee who probably would not be confirmed by the Senate. How Often Have Recent Presidents Made Recess Appointments? President William J. Clinton made 139 recess appointments, 95 to full-time positions. President George W. Bush made 171 recess appointments, of which 99 were to full-time positions.4 As of February 1, 2015, President Barack Obama had made 32 recess appointments, all to full-time positions.5 What Is a “Session”? For the purposes of the Recess Appointment Clause, the word “Session” refers to the period between the reconvening of the Senate after a sine die adjournment and the next sine die 1 The Federalist Papers, ed. Clinton Rossiter (New York: New American Library, 1961). Hamilton described the Recess Appointment Clause as a “supplement to the [Appointments Clause] for the purpose of establishing an auxiliary method of appointment, in cases to which the general method was inadequate.” He went on to write that the “ordinary power of appointment is confided to the President and Senate jointly, and can therefore only be exercised during the session of the Senate; but as it would have been improper to oblige this body to be continually in session for the appointment of officers, and as vacancies might happen in their recess, which it might be necessary for the public service to fill without delay, the succeeding clause is evidently intended to authorize the President, singly, to make temporary appointments ‘during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session’” (pp. 409-410) (emphasis in the original). 2 An opinion by Attorney General William Wirt in 1823 concerning the meaning of the word “happen” in the clause provides one example. In part, he stated, “The substantial purpose of the constitution was to keep these offices filled; and the powers adequate to this purpose were intended to be conveyed.” 1 Op. A.G. 631, 632 (1823). 3 U.S. Congress, Joint Committee on Printing, 2013-2014 Official Congressional Directory 113th Congress, S. Pub. 113-12, 113th Cong. (Washington: GPO, 2013), pp. 524-542. 4 For more, see CRS Report RL33310, Recess Appointments Made by President George W. Bush, by Henry B. Hogue and Maureen O. Bearden. 5 For more, see CRS Report R42329, Recess Appointments Made by President Barack Obama, by Henry B. Hogue and Maureen O. Bearden. Congressional Research Service RS21308 · VERSION 23 · UPDATED 1 Recess Appointments: Frequently Asked Questions adjournment.6 The Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution provides that Congress will meet annually on January 3, “unless they shall by law appoint a different day.”7 Generally, a session of the Senate begins on that day and continues until sine die adjournment, usually in the fall. Congress normally adjourns sine die by adopting a concurrent resolution through which each house grants permission to the other to adjourn sine die.8 These adjournment resolutions today usually authorize the leader of each chamber to call it back into session after the sine die adjournment. If this power is exercised, the previous session resumes and continues until the actual sine die adjournment is determined, usually pursuant to another concurrent resolution of adjournment.9 In practice, nonetheless, an initial sine die adjournment is generally considered to be the end of the Senate’s session for purposes of the expiration of a recess appointment.10 What Is a “Recess”? Generally, a recess is a break in House or Senate proceedings.11 Neither chamber may take a break of more than three days without the consent of the other.12 Such consent is usually provided through a concurrent resolution. A recess within a session is referred to as an intrasession recess. In recent decades, Congress has typically had 5-11 intrasession recesses of more than three days, usually in conjunction with national holidays.13 The break between the sine die adjournment of one session and the convening of the next is referred to as an intersession recess. In recent decades, each Congress has consisted of two 9-12 month sessions separated by an intersession recess. The period between the second session of one Congress and the first session of the following Congress is also an intersession recess. Recent Presidents have made both intersession and intrasession recess appointments. Intrasession recess appointments were unusual, however, prior to the 1940s, in part because intrasession recesses were less common at that time. Intrasession recess appointments have sometimes provoked controversy in the Senate, and some academic literature also has called their legitimacy
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